The awkward feelings toward Zoro for his blatant killing of Mr. 7 was still felt, though Luffy had taken his admission to staying his hand and not killing their foes wantonly at face value. Yet the Straw Hats were left confused at Zoro's explanation of who those strange attackers were, scared at first that they might end up being their first big foes on the Grand Line. The Island of Lost Animals disappeared into the distance as the Going Merry plodded after the Log Pose's course.
"He said he was part of Baroque Works," Zoro said. "I never heard of 'em. Apparently, some big shot organization. They go by code names, and they wanted me to enlist as their boss or something. Go figure. The whole thing felt masochistic." He leaned on his knee as he tore into a pear, devouring it in three bites and tossing the core overboard. "I saw the way you decked his partner, Nami. Not bad." He looked at Sanji. "You were useless."
"Watch your mouth!" Sanji said, cutting up apple slices for him and Nami to enjoy as the six Straw Hats sat around in a circle. "What, you'd just hit a lady?"
"Nah, I'd cut her up," Zoro replied with a smirk as he tore into a tangerine.
"Hey! Those are Nami's tangerines from her home! Give it here!" Sanji said, yelling and standing to extend his hand toward Zoro before he could bite it.
Nami cringed, waving her head back and forth as she swallowed her apple. "Sanji, stop. There are plenty. He can have it."
Usopp thought the whole thing was pretty awkward, not wanting to show it to his dear friend Sanji, but Gaimon guffawed at his right. Tears sprang to his eyes as he did so, enjoying a delicious apple himself. "Oh, wow! You guys are a real hoot! You sure you want an old coot like me around?"
"We need you around! We could use your sage wisdom that comes with age!" Luffy said with excitement as he devoured an apple and a pear, stem, core, and all.
Gaimon set to shaking his afro out so he could count up all the gold and beris stashed away in it. "How much is this worth these days?! Twenty million beris?!" The other Straw Hats cocked their brows at him, wondering how much money had inflated since his time as a young man.
"Wait until we add it to what we've already got," Luffy said excitedly. "So, Gaimon. Tell me! What's your dream?"
Gaimon swallowed a bite, knocked back by the question as more gold fell from his hair. "Well . . . I kinda gave up on my dreams a while ago. I dreamt I wanted to get off the island for a while, but even that went away until you guys arrived."
"Well that won't do! Think of a dream right now and tell it to us in front of the crew," Luffy said excitedly, patting Gaimon on the back of the chest to where the last of the gold fell out of Gaimon's tight curls.
Gaimon chewed the inside of his lip raw thinking of something; the last thing he wanted to do was let a man like Luffy down. "I dream of . . . finding a Devil Fruit that can free me from this treasure chest! And then . . . I can be free to dream bigger!"
This brought a smile even to Zoro's face. Although he had years on the Straw Hats even after you combined the others' ages. Gaimon seemed to be the youngest among them. One thing that they'd all noticed except Gaimon was that despite having not sailed since before he was inside a treasure chest, he had better sea legs than even some of the other Straw Hats did after sailing on the Merry for a couple months. Perhaps that was in part because his center of gravity was more balanced; but they all agreed it would be hard to move in a box in the first place.
Gaimon wanted to hear about the dreams of his new crewmates, though; Sanji began by telling him about the All Blue so wondrously that even Zoro had to respect his inquisitiveness about a legendary all sea. Nami's goal in particular struck Gaimon; a map of the entire world seemed completely improbable! Yet he was excited to see her work it out. Zoro's was amazing to him; he felt already that Zoro was strong enough to be the greatest swordsman. "Well, thank you," Zoro said, not often feeling flattery and unsure why he'd feel some from a marooned box-man.
"I want to be a brave warrior of the sea," Usopp said simply but firmly, nodding emphatically.
"Y-you're not already?" Gaimon asked, figuring the First Mate would be the bravest person on the crew beside the captain.
"And I'm gonna be King of the Pirates!" Luffy exclaimed boldly, waiting for Gaimon's reaction.
It was dull. He said blandly, "King of the Pirates? What's that?"
Luffy furrowed his brow. "The King of the Pirates? Well, everyone knows what that is. Gold Roger was the first King of the Pirates, and there hasn't been one since? Ring any bells?"
"Stop, Luffy," Zoro said. "Gaimon was stranded on the island for fifty years. Roger was only just executed twenty years ago."
"That's right. You wouldn't have heard about any of this," Nami said, realizing how difficult it could be to reintegrate Gaimon into the modern world. Belle-mere wasn't even forty when she died, Nami reflected.
"Wow!" Luffy exclaimed, staring at Gaimon for the first time like he was a zoo animal. "Well, let me tell you! Gold Roger was the greatest pirate that ever sailed the seas! He made it to the end of the Grand Line, proving there was another island further than the last one - and his grand treasure, the One Piece is waiting there for the next King of the Pirates to snatch up the title and succeed him."
Gaimon's eyes lit up as Luffy explained the title simply to him, and yet his face contorted into awe-struck horror as he yelled out, "AND YOU'RE GONNA BE THE NEXT ONE?!" Then he calmed down, recalling something from long ago when he was just sailing out. "Come to think of it, there was some impressive rookie named Roger sailing around when we were just coming up. I wonder if that's the same guy?"
"He was the most wanted man in the world, and the Navy eventually caught him," Luffy said. "They lopped his head off after he'd completed all his life's goals and did everything a man could do, in the Town of Beginning and End - Loguetown! We just visited there. It was our last stop in our home sea, the East Blue."
"Wow, that's amazing. How was it there?!" Gaimon asked.
"Well, we became the next biggest threat in the East Blue. I've got a 25 million beri bounty, which is the highest anyone from that sea has right now," Luffy explained boastfully. He grinned from beneath the brim of his straw hat.
"Wait, really?!" Gaimon yelled, looking around at the Straw Hats. "No wonder there are so few of you! I bet you all have big bounties."
"Nope," Sanji said, depressed.
"Not yet," Zoro said, somewhat bitterly himself.
"Hopefully never," Usopp and Nami said together.
"You guys are something else!" Gaimon exclaimed, laughing. "I was worried to sail with a bunch of scrappy kids, but you're welcoming and kind! I'm ready to see what we get into on the way to make Luffy King of the Pirates!"
Zoro stood up and smiled mischievously around the Straw Hats. "Well, we can't hear that and not toast," he said as he made his way into the cabin to retrieve a cask of ale. He pulled it back out with seven mugs; two for himself.
The Straw Hats laughed, toasting to making Luffy the next King of the Pirates first, then to each of them accomplishing their own goals, and then finally to Gaimon himself, draining three mugs quick. Gaimon was losing his sea legs at that point, burping and gurgling. "I haven't had a drink in a long time. I'm gonna have to slow down," he said, setting his mug on the floor and tipping over onto his side.
"Easy, sailor," Usopp said, tilting Gaimon back onto his feet. "So wait . . . if you never knew about the King of the Pirates, who were the top leaguers when you were a pirate?"
"They were the Rocks Pirates," Gaimon said emphatically. He looked around with a wide brimmed smile at each of the Straw Hats, waiting for their reaction. "I said, they were the Rocks Pirates!" he said again, slightly louder.
"We heard you. Never heard of them myself," Zoro replied.
"What?!" Gaimon said incredulously and high pitched. "There's no way you all haven't heard of them." There was a resounding no from the other Straw Hats. He shook his head. He couldn't believe this! "The captain was Rocks D. Xebec, and he was the reason it became a voyage for pirates to tackle the Grand Line from start to finish."
"Wait . . . D?" Sanji said, darting his eyes over to Luffy. "Is there any relation there, Luffy?"
Luffy shrugged, shaking his head. "I never heard of the guy."
Gaimon scoffed, scratching his forehead. "I can't wrap my head around that! I mean, he was giving the Navy a run for their money with his titanic crew. He didn't have a lot of crewmates - just six."
"Who were they?" Zoro asked, his skin prickling with anticipation at a new tale of old legends.
"There was Captain John, and Ochoku; Silver Axe, aptly named for the weapon they bore; Shiki the Golden Lion! The tempestuous cannon of the crew that was on trek to surpass even Xebec someday!" Gaimon said with splendor as he prattled off names the Straw Hats still hadn't heard before.
"And, of course, his top three lieutenants: Charlotte Linlin the great beauty of the sea! Kaido the Beast, the descendant of ogres! Edward Newgate, the Strongest Man in the World!" Gaimon said, his eyes sparkling.
"Now, them, we know," Sanji said as he sat back, his eyes going wide as he held onto his knees. "These guys must've been big shots! How is it we haven't heard of the Rocks Pirates before?"
"You know them?" Gaimon asked, astonished. The breath was taken from his lungs.
"We do?" Usopp chimed in, never having heard those names before.
"Of course! They're three of the Four Emperors!" Luffy exclaimed. "These Rocks Pirates are amazing! I can tell already! I want to learn more about the others like Captain John and Silver Axe! Those names are so cool!" He rolled onto his back, spilling ale onto his shirt.
"Four Emperors?" Gaimon asked. "One thing at a time! What?"
"The Yonko, the Four Emperors," Zoro explained. "They're the top contenders for the spot as Pirate King. Kaido the Beast remains the same; he now commands the fearsome Beast Pirates alongside his son. Charlotte Linlin still has that name but is better known as Big Mom these days. And Edward Newgate is still known as the Strongest Man in the World - but his name these days is Whitebeard, and he commands the most vast pirate fleet in the world."
"You're kidding!" Gaimon gasped. He looked at Luffy, wagging his finger. "We're gonna have to up your training regime, whatever it is! These are some tough guys you'll be going up against!"
"Training? I just get stronger when I beat up jerks," Luffy replied.
"So, who's the fourth Emperor?" Usopp asked, wishing he'd been more privy to this information but glad he was at least here just in front of his crew. A First Mate should know these names by now!
"It's Shanks, dumbie!" Luffy exclaimed in response, chuckling. "Come on, you didn't know that?"
Usopp's eyes went wide. "Shanks, Shanks - you mean your Shanks? My dad's Shanks?! Red Hair Shanks?!"
The other three Straw Hats were more shocked than Gaimon was that the same Shanks that had given Luffy his straw hat was the Fourth Emperor. Zoro himself was most shocked that Luffy had any affiliation with him at all. "You know Red Hair Shanks?!" he exclaimed. "He's supposed to have the strongest claim to the One Piece!"
"Wait, wait, wait, you never once mentioned your Shanks was "Red Hair" Shanks!" Sanji yelled, waving his hands back and forth. "I . . . I can't tell if that's a good thing or a bad thing."
"I never would have guessed! It's such a common name!" Nami exclaimed, remembering the three Shanks's from Cocoyashi Village. She clapped her hands to her face, thinking of Luffy's strong heritage from Garp and his strong influence from the Yonko, Shanks. She had leapt to her feet but now fell back to her rear end, grabbing her mug and draining it.
"I figured you guys knew this already! Sorry," Luffy said in response, checking the dirt under his nails as the other Straw Hats soaked in this huge shock. Gaimon laughed, surprised but also not as it was clearly more of a twist for his new shipmates.
"You're a riot, Luffy!" Gaimon exclaimed. "I'm in some strong company! I might struggle to keep up, and not just cause of my box. You kids still sure you want this old geezer tagging along?"
"Hush with that," Luffy said as he stood up to refill his mug. "Nami, want me to check the Log Pose?"
Nami handed the Pose over and let him man the helm, redirecting their course after the Pose. After some thought as to the wisdom of letting him do that, Nami took the Pose back and checked their course, correcting them to the right track. She stared at Luffy, having to laugh under her breath as she stood in awe of her captain once again. How does he keep pulling tricks out of that hat?
The Straw Hats got to know Gaimon well as he integrated into the crew well as quartermaster. He tidied things up well in the cabin, taking special care under the feeling that it was still other people's stuff. Get used to calling it your stuff! You're here to stay! Gaimon said to himself proudly as he found the Eternal Pose on the shelf. He was standing on a chair he'd climbed up to with piles of books, crates, and whatever else he could make narrow stairs out of. "You all have an Eternal Pose?" Gaimon asked, quite impressed.
"Yeah, some friends of ours retrieved this from some enemies of ours," Sanji explained in a short way. "We don't know much about it. Apparently, it's weird. Unmarked. But there's something etched in the bottom."
"Yeah, Jaya!" Gaimon said knowingly as he flipped the Eternal Pose over. "That's where a big pirate city lies. We were excited to get there and see what it was like. I wonder if my crew ever made it there . . ."
Sanji felt bad for Gaimon, not having to finished his journey with his original crew. At least you can finish it at all, Sanji thought, grateful to add him to their ranks. "What were your crew called?"
"We were the Helliere Pirates," Gaimon said, threatening to get emotional if he talked too much about them, returning to his duties of tidying the place up and mostly forgetting about the Eternal Pose.
Three days after Gaimon joined the crew, the Going Merry still didn't seem close to finding their next island though they strayed not from the Log Pose again. They encountered a dismal storm Nami saved them through, though Gaimon had been swept overboard. If not for Luffy's Gum Gum powers, he'd have sunk. It's like I already have a Devil Fruit, Gaimon thought miserably. He was excited to be a pirate again, but most tortured still by his physical ailment.
After the storm, the seas and wind calmed but the rain turned into snow. The chill was unlike anything they'd experienced before for the most part. "I'm f-freezing! I didn't . . . I-I-I didn't realize things could get this cold," Usopp said as his teeth chattered up and down, chittering against one another. Zoro was worried they'd shatter against one another. Neither he nor Luffy felt the cold whatsoever.
Luffy was making snowmen on the Merry's deck, laughing. "This stuff is so cool! I'm so glad we get to play around in the snow! Come on, Usopp, let's have a snowball fight!" Usopp was in no condition to have a snowball fight. He wrapped his bare arms tight around his body, digging as much of them deep into his armpits as possible.
"S-S-S-S-Sanj!" Usopp stammered to Sanji as he came back onto the deck dressed in a jacket. "L-l-l-let me wear some spare clothes!"
"No way! I only have one spare coat and I'm not lending it to you," Sanji replied. "Not my fault you didn't think to bring warm clothes."
"I-I've never had to w-w-wear warm clothes, Usopp stammered, having to really enunciate through the chill to get the last words across.
The cabin door opened again and out came Nami and Gaimon, both grinning widely. Nami, too, had brought warm weather clothing, having bought some with Sanji in Loguetown. They had taken a spare blanket that was too large for any of the beds and cut it up in a way where it could envelop Gaimon and keep him warm, too - after a large scale haircut that more than halved his afro size. He had petitioned not to lose the afro; it was one aspect of time passing he'd grown quite fond of. Now, he grinned behind the warmth of the wide wool blanket, wrapped up tight around his chest with two armholes for his hands. "Thanks, Nami! This is the best!"
"Of course! I'm happy to help. None of our stuff can fit you, unfortunately," Nami said as she tucked her hands into mittens. "Luffy, Usopp, Zoro. What are you doing? Bundle up."
"I'm fine," Zoro replied, training his muscles as he stared off into the mist of the snowy sea without a look at the others.
"I-I-I'm t-t-t-trying!" Usopp stammered.
Luffy looked up from his snowman and looked around at the others who were bundling up - and suddenly began shivering, jamming his hands under his armpits and shivering worse than even Usopp was. "H-h-h-h-h-hey! It's fuh-fuh-freezing!"
Sanji sighed and rubbed his forehead, opening the cabin door for Usopp. "Let's go warm you up. I forgot Nami's got her own clothes to wear." Usopp was too cold to question Sanji's comment, rushing inside with the cook to get dressed for warmth as Luffy ran inside after them to try and beat Usopp to the punch.
"This captain of ours is such a funny guy," Gaimon had to say as the three of them entered the Merry's cabin. "I'll have to find some way to thank him."
"You don't have to do that. None of us have done anything like that. Something tells me us hanging around is all he really wants in return," Nami said. She didn't know it, but Zoro's ears perked up at the comment and he logged that tidbit.
But he had something more pressing to tend to, staring out at sea. He raised an eyebrow as he finished his set and then set the weights down with a clunk. He walked to the helm and spun them to starboard rather suddenly. Nami and Gaimon both looked up at him as they felt the deck pitch under their feet. "Zoro, what are you doing? We were on course," Nami called out.
"There's someone in the ocean," Zoro replied simply, pointing overboard. Gaimon gasped and ran to the railing, spotting the form in the water. It was an ape-man, shivering in the sea, his head still poking out above the water. He seemed conscious, but he was shivering so hard he was unable to otherwise move.
"Hold on!" Gaimon called out, rushing to the cabin wall where their safety tube laid. Gaimon hoisted the tube hard and made to toss it into the water, but the rope got caught under his foot and it slapped against the side of the Going Merry. He grumbled, pulling the rope back to him to give the inner tube another toss - where it came just short of the ape-man.
Gaimon growled and tugged the inner tube back to him post-haste as Zoro walked over to him. "Here, I'll do it," Zoro offered.
"No, I got it!" Gaimon blared back, hauling the inner tube over the railing awkwardly from his height below the railing and picked the tube up, taking a few steps back and getting a running start to throw the tube overboard. It landed next to the ape-man, and he managed to control his freezing body enough to grab hold of the tube. There, Gaimon, Nami, and Zoro pitched in to haul the ape-man onto the Going Merry.
Shortly after, Luffy, Usopp, and Sanji returned. Usopp was bundled up in a nice coat set, way warmer than he'd been earlier as he sat under a blanket while he was inside. "I could get used to this set," Usopp said as they returned, soon looking at the Straw Hats hauling the ape-man against the side of the Merry.
"What's going on?" Luffy asked, his shivering ended as he forgot how cold he was to help them bring the ape up as he ran to the railing and grabbed the ape's collar and brought him over the rail onto the deck. "Who is this?" he asked the others as if they would know.
"He's covered in fur and he's still blue! We gotta get him inside," Nami said in a frenzy, gathering the ape up and helping him walk into the cabin as Gaimon held the door open. The others made to enter the cabin along with them except for Zoro, who turned back to return to lifting weights. "Hey!" Nami called to him, undoing the clasp on the Log Pose and tossing it to him. He caught it deftly as she said, "Steer us back on course while we take care of this."
"You got it," Zoro replied as he took the helm instead.
The other Straw Hats brought the ape into the cabin where the warmth even from just the four wood walls was enough to give him his voice back. Sanji rushed to the hall closet where he grabbed another one of their spare blankets and tossed it to the ape. He wrapped it around his shoulders in a near seizure as he said, "I-I-I-I can f-f-f-eeeeeeel it in my b-bones."
"I'll bet! It's cold out there. Are you alright? Where did you come from?" Usopp asked as he sat across from the ape at the table.
"M-my pira-rate crew," the ape said. "I'm Ham-Ham-Ham-Hamburg. I'm th-the quarterm-m-master on the F-F-ox-y Pi-rate-rates." He tried his hardest to smile at them, though through his shivering and gargantuan teeth, it came across as more shocking than anything else. Luffy instinctively stepped in front of his crewmates to protect them at the sight.
"Hamburg. Nice to meet you. I'm the newly minted quartermaster of our own crew, the Straw Hat Pirates! I'm Gaimon!" the Straw Hats' quartermaster responded joyously, stepping back in front of Luffy and the others to welcome Hamburg aboard. He shook his head, Hamburg perhaps shaking more emphatically than he meant to, as Gaimon was rattled against his treasure chest.
"I'm Luffy, the captain! This is Usopp, my First Mate," Luffy introduced them as he sat in between Usopp and Hamburg at the dinner table. "How'd you get tossed out to sea? You gonna live?"
"Y-yeah, I'll l-l-live," Hamburg stuttered out. "It was just c-c-crazy! There was a-a-a b-big st-stor-orm at sea and I was swept . . . o-o-overboard in the s-sq-squ-squa-squall." He looked at the bowl of fruit on the table and his hand crept toward an apple. "L-l-looks g-g-good!"
Sanji slapped Hamburg's hand away with the sole of his foot , glaring down at him. "I'm the cook. Don't touch our food." Hamburg quivered under Sanji's gaze, making Sanji feel guilty once again as he remembered this man was a castaway in the middle of the frigid sea. "Let me . . . make you some food instead." He didn't like this Hamburg fellow whatsoever, but he had to do the right thing.
"Th-thank you," Hamburg replied as Sanji set to work at the stove. "I j-just realized h-how hungry I am!"
"Sanji's the best cook! Oh, and there's Nami, too! She's the best navigator," Luffy bragged. "What's your crew like? Who's your captain? You're the first pirate crew we'll have gotten to meet since arriving!"
"One qu-question at a time," Hamburg replied. "I follow Captain Silver Foxy, the best Davy Backer of them all. We've got a crew of three hundred strong, and growing every day. Oh, but don't worry. Your crew is too small. You guys seem like rookies! I've never heard of you. Hey, come to think of it, why haven't you heard of us?"
Luffy shrugged. "I haven't heard of a lot of people. Don't take it personally."
"Well, your crew must be nearby. I'd imagine you all were bound for the same island we're bound for," Nami inferred. "You can't have been in the ocean for very long, or you'd have frozen to death. We can't be too far behind!"
"I was in there for a day and a half," Hamburg responded flatly.
"What?! That's even less plausible than me surviving in a box on an island full of dangerous animals!" Gaimon exclaimed sincerely. He clapped his hands to his cheeks, walking over to the oven and opening it to crawl inside.
"What are you doing?!" Sanji said, alarmed as he watched Gaimon nearly completely crawl inside if not for his afro.
Gaimon grunted in response, crawling back out as he seemed to observe his actions for the first time himself. "Oh, sorry! I just got so depressed, I thought I'd kill myself real quick!" Gaimon began to laugh, and in a moment, Luffy began laughing, as well. "My mind's been through the ringer since I got left behind! It's gonna take some getting used to being back around so many people," Gaimon explained to Hamburg.
And Hamburg began to laugh as well. "That's quite alright! You must be quite an interesting man if you're stuck in a box like that." The three of their laughter echoed around the Going Merry, springing out onto the deck where Zoro stood alone and steered the Merry onward through the fog.
It was days later since Baroque Works' recruitment agents had encountered the Straw Hat Pirates on that strange island. Ms. Independence Day and Mr. 7 had the unique occupation as a recruitment service for Baroque Works. Their employment was entirely banked on their success, as well as however long it took for the new organization to become established. Her own mission was dependent on much other else that Mr. 7 knew nothing about.
Their main base was on the nearby island of Guanhao and Ms. Independence Day had decided to make straight for there using her Eternal Pose. My best bet is to convene with my boss and ask for some sort of regroupment. This is not going according to plan! How could amateurs have done that to 7?! She had always estimated herself as stronger, downplaying her strength around him to make him feel at ease and in charge. Yet even still, Mr. 7, whoever he really was, that big, strange, scary brute, was also immensely strong. He was ten times the size of Ms. Indy Day, and she had never once been able to lift his greataxe.
Ms. Independence Day, or as she was known by her birth name, Koala, was glad to be back on one of Cipher Pol's bases, mainly used for the training of new units in the World Government's organization, yet there was a substantial amount of CP3 units here. That was the regiment Koala was assigned to, and the World Government had obviously known about Baroque Works' forming as soon as it had started. Yet they underestimated it, and Koala had only recently joined. Luckily, the position was high, and although there was no face to face contact with this "Mr. 0," she did have direct contact with him.
Yet she was shocked as a man in a mask stepped out in front of her. Between the dock to the island and the Cipher Pol bases farther onto Guanhao were immense forests, and though a paved road wound through it, there was a substantial amount of space spent alone with no checkpoints in between. And though there were ships at the dock, there were no others as she called out for assistance, still dressed in her disguise and hoping anyone would recognize her should they be napping on the ships. Instead, there was no reply as the man in the mask stooped toward her, looming over her. "Help, help!" Koala screamed in vain all the same.
She shot her string out of her wrists at the man, but he easily turned his arms into steel blades that caught the sunlight and cut through her string easily, casting it aside in smaller shreds as he stooped toward her. She thought too late as she realized he was a Devil Fruit user to cast herself into the sea and swim away, but as she leapt her legs over the deck, his arm turned back into flesh and he reached out, grabbing hold of her collar before she could fall into the water safely.
"No!" Koala screamed. "Let go of me! Who are you?!" she yelled out at the masked man who stared down at her with wide eyes behind the eyeholes of the mostly blank mask. He brought a fist up and smashed atop her head, knocking the world black.
ATB
Welcome to Arc 7: Davy Back! I hope you all enjoyed Arc 6: The Grand Line.
In writing these arcs, I found that where I felt the outlining seemed drab, bringing it out into the full light and fleshing everything out gave it way more life. I hope you all enjoy. Thank you for the continued support, reviews, follows, favorites, everything!
It means the world.
Until next time
ATB
